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Author: Politics on the Hudson

Gov. Andrew Cuomo and legislative leaders reached an agreement tonight on a budget for the 2013-14 fiscal year. The $136 billion budget is expected to include a three-year phase in of an increase in the minimum wage, extending higher income taxes on millionaires and a $350 rebate check to families. “I am pleased to announce […]

Twenty-nine upstate lawmakers wrote a letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and legislative leaders yesterday urging that a proposal to decriminalize a small amount of marijuana in New York City be expanded to include all of the state. The measure, introduced last week, would no longer lead to misdemeanor charges if a person is found with […]

Legislative leaders indicated last week that they plan to approve Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposal to let local governments and schools smooth out their pension costs. Now Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, said he expects there will be changes to the bill that would mollify the concerns of state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, who has questioned the […]

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, D-Manhattan, defended a planned change to the gun-control law, saying a move to allow the sale of a 10-bullet magazine won’t infringe on the intent of the tough law. Silver told reporters this afternoon that gun manufacturers simply don’t make seven-bullet magazines. The proposed change would allow for the sale of […]

Gov. Andrew Cuomo took issue with the suggestion that he’s looking to roll back a key provision of New York’s controversial new gun-control laws, insisting he and lawmakers are looking at nothing more than “technical changes” to correct an “inconsistency in the law.” Cuomo faced a barrage of questions on the gun laws Wednesday after […]

Senate Democratic Leader Andrea Stewart Cousins, D-Yonkers, put the blame today on Senate Republicans, not the Independent Democratic Conference for a three-year phase of the minimum-wage increase. Legislative leaders and Gov. Andrew Cuomo are planning to increase the minimum wage to $9 an hour by 2016. Senate Democrats said they are prepared to vote to […]

New York bear hunters took 1,337 black bears during the 2012 hunting seasons, making it the third highest bear harvest on record in New York, the state Department of Environmental Conservation said yesterday. Only the 2003 harvest (1,864) and 2009 harvest (1,487) surpassed last year’s take, the DEC said. “New York has excellent bear habitat […]

Mental health groups are hoping to get technical changes to New York’s controversial new gun law through the state budget negotiation process, they said Wednesday. Gov. Andrew Cuomo and legislative leaders indicated Tuesday they were discussing tweaks to the law. Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said they discussed correcting an “inconsistency” in the law that allows […]

Westchester Legislator Michael Kaplowitz, D-Somers, who shook up his party when he and another legislator voted with Republicans on the 2013 county budget, has announced he is running for reelection this year. Kaplowitz, who represents District 4 in Yorktown, Somers and New Castle, cited his “independence, leadership in reducing taxes and spending, protecting the environment […]

Opposition to natural-gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale is growing in New York as Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration weighs whether to allow shale-gas drilling in the state, a new poll released Wednesday found. The Quinnipiac University survey found 46 percent of New York voters oppose shale-gas drilling, compared to 39 percent in favor. It’s the […]